


in a pace you'll understand

by Sinna



Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: Asexual Character, Canon Asexual Character, Gen, I'm so happy I can use that tag
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-07
Updated: 2018-08-07
Packaged: 2019-06-23 10:19:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,101
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15604161
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sinna/pseuds/Sinna
Summary: Three times Jonathan Sims was called a monster, and one time he wasn't.





	in a pace you'll understand

**Author's Note:**

> Beta'd by the wonderful Etiaminaeri  
> Title from "Daniel in the Den" by Bastille

The first time someone called Jonathan Simms a monster, he was 15 years old and he didn’t care.

His first boyfriend was screaming at him, halfway through a breakup tirade, and Jon honestly just wished he would shut up and go away. So what if he’d missed a “date” because he got distracted at the library? It wasn’t like Tommy was planning to do anything except play video games and try to kiss him during the cutscenes. The same thing they did every week. _Dr. Faustus_ was much more interesting.

Okay, so clearly this relationship hadn’t been going anywhere. They’d been together three months, and the relationship mostly consisted of Tommy talking about video games while Jon ignored him, Jon talking about books while Tommy ignored him, and Tommy trying to get into Jon’s pants – which definitely wasn’t going to happen, thank you very much. In retrospect, maybe agreeing to date someone just because you were curious about some things wasn’t the best idea.

There was still no need to be _rude_.

\--

Wreathed in a haze of smoke, Jon sighed in contentment as Georgie stroked her fingers through his hair. The two were sprawled on a beat-up sofa, passing a joint back and forth between them. It had become their routine: Jon dated someone for a few months, it ended horribly – usually with the person in question calling him a fun variety of rude names, - and then he and Georgie got high in her flat, where the landlord wouldn’t call the police if he smelled something off. The fact that these nights with Georgie were his favorite part of dating people probably said… a lot of things… about him.

“Why can’t I just date someone like you?” he mused, not really expecting an answer.

“I _am_ single,” she pointed out.

Now that she mentioned it, she hadn’t dated anyone since… what’s-his-name… the cute doctor who decided the correct response to feeling threatened by her male best friend was to claim that said best friend was hitting on him in a spectacularly failed attempt to ruin their friendship.

“Are you asking me out?”

She shrugged. “I dunno. I just figured we might as well give it a go.”

He hadn’t exactly meant that he wanted to date _her_ when he said he wanted to date someone like her, but even he wasn’t sure what he _had_ meant by it.

And she had a point. They went well together. Maybe this was what they both needed.

“Okay. Works for me.”

“Good.”

She kissed him on the lips when he left in the morning, and for the first time in his life, a kiss felt… comfortable.

\--

“I think I like girls,” Georgie announced one morning over toast.

For a moment, Jon assumed she was reading a headline, or a quote, from an article in the paper by her hand.

When the words weren’t followed by an immediate explanation, he reevaluated that assumption.

“That’s… nice?” he ventured.

“I mean I’m a lesbian,” she clarified.

“Oh. Good for you.” He attempted a congratulatory smile.

“Jon, you do realize I’m trying to break up with you?”

He shrugged. “I figured as much.”

She sighed, a soft smile playing at her lips. “You really don’t mind, do you?”

He did not. At all. He’d been trying for weeks to figure out how to break up with her without it getting messy.

“We’re still going to be friends, right? That’s what matters.”

She reached across the table to muss his carefully coifed hair.

“Yeah, it is.”

\--

Georgie’s first girlfriend was very surprised to find that Georgie’s ex-boyfriend was her biggest supporter. At least until she made the mistake of cheating on his best friend.

She was the second person to call Jonathan Simms a monster. She deserved the word as much as him, as far as he was concerned.

\--

The third time someone called Jonathan Simms a monster, it was probably true.

\--

“I think Martin has a crush on me,” Jon said quietly.

“Is that so?” Georgie remarked evenly.

“Do you think I should… I don’t know… ask him out or something?”

Georgie looked up at him, her eyes narrowing just a bit.

“Do you want to ask him out?”

He honestly hadn’t considered it from that perspective.

“No? Yes? I don’t really know…”

“Well, that doesn’t sound particularly enthusiastic to me,” she said.

“I mean, if things go wrong…” He hesitated. “But still…”

“Jon, look at me.” He raised his head to meet her eyes. “What is this really about? You’re obviously not actually into the guy. Why would you date a guy just because he likes you?”

“You used to do it all the time,” Jon pointed out, scrambling to shift the subject.

“Yeah, but that’s because I didn’t realize I was…” she trailed off. “Are you just actually straight?”

“I don’t know! It’s not like I’m any more interested in women.”

“Okay, so maybe you’re asexual. Big deal.”

“Yes, actually!”

Georgie pursed her lips and looked him over.

“So now are you going to tell me what you’re freaking out about and why you’re considering dating your coworker as a solution?”

As far as Jon was aware, Georgie’s powers, as they may be, meant only that she felt no fear. Compulsion was unique to The Archivist. But she had a way of making him talk all the same.

“What would you do if you knew you were becoming a monster?” he asked quietly.

She shrugged. “Go get ice cream? Maybe take a nice bath?”

It was a little too carefully nonchalant. She knew perfectly well that he wasn’t asking a hypothetical question.

“Georgie, I don’t even know how much humanity I have left.”

“And dating Martin going to fix that… how?” she asked, dark eyes piercing.

“It just seemed…” he paused. “It seemed like it might help.”

It sounded stupid now that he said it aloud. From Georgie’s expression, she agreed.

“Dating someone you don’t really want to isn’t going to make you any more or less human, Jon. It’s just going to make both of you miserable.”

“I know. You’re right.”

She squeezed his hand.

“You bet I am.” She looked at the clock. “I have a better idea. Let’s go bowling.”

“Bowling?” he repeated.

“Listen, if there’s one thing I can’t imagine a monster doing, it’s bowling. So, we’re going to go bowling every week, and wear obnoxiously bright colors, and eat shitty pizza, and talk about everything except your job. Got it?”

He smiled.

“Yeah. Got it.”

So maybe he wasn’t entirely human anymore. That didn’t mean he had to become a monster.

  


 

**Author's Note:**

> I love Georgie and her relationship with Jon a lot ok?


End file.
